Mercedes and I went to Iceland in July. As we were booking details for the trip last spring, including a rental car, it dawned on me that we could rent a little bit of North American unobtainium. A new 2019 Suzuki Jimny. Low and behold, we were able to snag one of these little 4x4s…
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Oregon Trail Rally is the state’s biggest stage rally event. It brings out both the big dogs, such as the Subaru Motorsports USA team that includes David Higgins and Travis Pastrana—as well as privateers campaigning a host of various rally cars. And if you were wondering, Higgins and his co-driver, Craig Drew, took first place…
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I’ve long wanted to build some sort of super sleeper. You take one car that is not anywhere near a high-performance vehicle from the factory, add in some sort of higher-horsepower engine/drivetrain/suspension, and surprise a bunch of people. Here are three of my dream projects on our sister site, Subcompact Culture. Read more …
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I’ve long said that most people love to belong to something. Whether it’s a club, a devout loyalty to a brand, or whatever. Everyone likes to belong somehow when it comes to automotive things. There’s seems to be an unofficial hierarchy to it. The base layer is “car guy” or “car gal.” Next up is…
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We just picked up a brand-new ARB Classic Series II portable Fridge Freezer. This new fridge comes in a new color, but it also has new features such as Bluetooth connectivity. Let’s see what’s in the box. After we unboxed the unit, we plugged it into our Pajero utilizing the ARB Wiring Kit, which we…
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One of my least favorite maintenance practices is having to replace the gear oil in a vehicle’s axles. It’s often smelly, messy, and an overall pain in the butt. So when it came time to replace the 80W-90 oil in our 1991 Mitsubishi Pajero‘s axles, I wasn’t exactly looking forward to it. But I had…
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Vehicles from the 1980s and 1990s are starting to become popular projects, especially those older JDM or Euro cars and trucks that are now available for import to the U.S. under the 25 year rule. But those looking to buy something from the malaise or Radwood era should remember: these are not new cars, and…
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Back in November, 2018 we flew to Texas for the second time in 12 months to pick up yet another second-generation Mitsubishi Pajero. We drove it back from Austin without incident, but we’ve had to put some work into the rig since.
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Back when we had the PDXJ, our 2001 Jeep Cherokee, one of the upgrades we made was replacing the OE headlights with J.W. Speaker LED headlamps. The headlights were a huge improvement over the Jeep’s stock headlights which worked about as well as whale oil lanterns.
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Last Sunday was a time warp back to the early 1990s. OK, it also may have been the early 1990s in Japan, but it was a time warp nonetheless. Several JDM vans (and one sweet ’70s Chevy van) headed for the hills of Washington for the Time Traveler’s 4×4 Van Run. The meet, organized by…
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